


light pink skies

by timkon



Category: You Could Make a Life Series - Taylor Fitzpatrick
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Gritty, Misunderstandings, Pre-Slash, YCMAL Holiday Exchange 2019, the Wells Fargo Center is basically its own character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:55:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21836416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timkon/pseuds/timkon
Summary: Jessica is honestly a little embarrassed that it took the intervention of a straight man (a hockey player, nonetheless) to get her act together.
Relationships: Jessica/Irina
Comments: 5
Kudos: 14





	light pink skies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [frogy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/frogy/gifts).

> Requested as: “More Gritty from the Gritty's in Love Patreon” & “I love all these idiots and would be happy with anything where they are dumb and in love”
> 
> (title from "It's Nice to Have a Friend" by Taylor Swift)

Jessica is honestly a little embarrassed that it took the intervention of a straight man (a  _ hockey _ player, nonetheless) to get her act together. She doesn’t consider herself shy by any means and yet, she seems to run out of words every time she’s met Irina outside of the Gritty costume so far. 

  
  


The catalyst had been a particularly brutal third conversation with her face-to-face. Jessica not only failed to confess to Irina that she’s Gritty, but also squeaked out three coherent sentences before pretending she had somewhere else to be out of shame. While she was fast-walking to save her dignity, she ran into someone else and came to a total stop. It turned out she had run into Mulligan, who she recognized from hellos exchanged around the arena and at other events. He’s an unofficial part of the Flyers leadership among the current roster, though she knows he doesn’t get a ton of recognition for that unless you’re around the locker room a lot. Mulligan took one look at Jessica, how frazzled she looked that day, and very nicely asked her if she wanted to talk about it. 

  
  


Despite working in and around hockey for a few years now, she still gets surprised sometimes by the generosity of some players. At his insistence, she accepted the offer.

  
  


Jessica spilled the short version of the story - she’s Gritty, a coworker didn’t recognize her once and now she keeps putting her foot in her mouth even wearing the costume, and that she really, really wants to be friends - over a coffee. He winced sympathetically when she detailed how Irina didn’t recognize Jessica the first time and how she’s been too horrified by the first (and second and third) impression she gave to correct her since. She didn’t ask about why he was coming in on an off-day, but she tried to keep the conversation short to be mindful. He wasn’t buying it though, and pried for more details until she spilled her huge crush as well.

  
  


Philadelphia doesn’t compare to plenty of other places in Pennsylvania for the title of “most homophobes per capita”, but she’s still wary about being too open about being a lesbian, in the workplace at least. Mulligan looked even more sympathetic after the reveal, if that was possible. 

  
  


She didn’t expect anything more than the free coffee and a “hope it goes well”. Mulligan had other ideas and actually talked her into agreeing to speak to Irina alone on her own terms. Instead of leaving their meetings up to chance and being caught off-guard, she could think of what she wanted to say first, find out when the ice girls are usually in to make sure neither of them are in a hurry, and then apologize herself for the miscommunication. Just a five minute conversation that may or may not involve asking her out for drinks outside of work. Whatever Jessica was comfortable with. It was the longest and most open conversation she’s ever had with one of the players, outside of her slightly teary ramble to Marc Lapointe that was more word vomiting at him than anything else. Also, technically not supposed to happen. 

  
  


But after all that fanfare, here she is.

  
  


Waiting to talk to Irina after her practice.

  
  


Alone.

  
  


_ This is a bad decision _ , Jessica thinks as she paces down the hall.  _ This is a very bad decision and I’m going to end up saying  _ “I Gritty, you Irina,”  _ like I’m Tarzan to break the ice, which she won’t know how to respond to because of  _ course _ she wouldn’t! Then I’ll have to go die in a hole and they’ll have to replace me with someone who isn’t nearly funny enough to be Gritty. _

  
  


That thought stops her in her tracks, literally and metaphorically. She’s Gritty—or well, she plays his character daily. If Gritty can handle terrified babies and children daily, surely a conversation with an adult colleague isn’t that much more scary? If Irina still thinks that Jessica is weird after this talk, despite being fine with the mysterious person underneath the Gritty costume, then that’s her loss. 

  
  


Jessica smiles.

  
  


“Hey! Jessica, right?” a voice calls out from the other end of the hall.

  
  


She whips her head around to follow the voice, nearly smacking herself in the face with her ponytail in the process. It’s Irina walking slowly towards her with a small smile on her face. She has a skate bag slung over one shoulder and another bag dangling from her hands, which Jessica presumes is her extra clothes for practice. Her athletic leggings fit her really well and  _ wow, is this not the time to be thinking about that. _

  
  


“Hey, Irina! I'm—wait, you know my name?” Jessica asks.

  
  


“Of course,” Irina says and furrows her eyebrows. She’s come to a stop a few feet away from her now, no longer seeming out of breath, though Jessica can spot a bit of sweat falling from her hairline that Irina wipes at. “Well, actually, I didn’t that other time so I asked Daniel and he corrected me. Sorry for forgetting our first meeting before that by the way, I probably had a paper or something due that day that took over my thoughts.”

  
  


Jessica gapes at Irina and Irina in turn starts looking concerned. “Oh no, did I say something wrong? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable—”

  
  


“No, no it’s fine! This is a big misunderstanding, it’s my fault.”

  
  


“What?” 

  
  


“I didn’t introduce myself the first time we spoke, so you couldn’t have known,” Jessica says. It’s now or never. “You caught me off-guard the other week—and I am so sorry for freaking out, oh my God, that was embarrassing. We’ve talked a lot but you’ve never actually seen me, um, dressed normally?”

  
  


Irina no longer has her eyes wide and lips pressed together in concern, but now she just looks plain confused again. Her bewilderment is obvious in her voice when she says, “You… don’t dress casual normally? Like, you wear a suit? I don’t get it.”

  
  


“Fuck, sorry that was vague. I meant to say that I’m usually wearing a giant costume. Because I’m Gritty. The big, orange mascot for the Flyers? Googly eyes, very wide hips, you know.”

  
  


“I know what Gritty looks like,” Irina says. She can’t read the expression on her face right now, but Irina tightens her hold on her bag strap.

  
  


“Right. Sorry. We’ve talked to each other before, but I was wearing the Gritty costume at the time since that’s my job. Being Gritty. Ha. I guess I thought you’d recognize my voice or something, but that was a dumb thought. You were being nice to me before because we’re coworkers and you have no obligation to talk to strangers, of course. I’ve been really weird since because shouting ‘No!’ and running away was not my best moment, and I came here because I wanted to apologize and introduce myself properly to you. Which I’ve done now, so I guess that’s it.” 

  
  


Jessica is looking at her hands through her entire ramble, like a nervous kid reading off cue cards, except there’s no cue cards. Just her and her stupid crush and her stupid hands that really want to be tapping on something right now even though she kicked that habit ages ago. Sometimes, she wishes she could throw her hands away. After a minute passes in silence between the two of them, Jessica realizes she should probably go back home. She apologized and corrected the record, which was her goal after all.

  
  


“Right—”

“Hey—”

  
  


Both Jessica and Irina start speaking at the same time as Jessica lifts up her head to say goodbye. They laugh nervously about it and Jessica gestures for Irina to go first. With some trepidation, she does.

  
  


“Hey. I feel really embarrassed. No, please don’t apologize, let me say that. Obviously it’s not my fault, but I don’t want you to feel like I wouldn’t want to be friends with you when you aren’t Gritty.”

  
  


Jessica’s throat tightens a little and Irina continues talking. “The Jessica I know is really nice, and funny, and I do want to get to know her. I wasn’t expecting you to be the same person so that was a little surprising. That time we talked about our takes on Serial for ten minutes wasn’t professional courtesy or anything, you’re easy to talk to when you aren’t running away.”

  
  


“Oh.”

  
  


“Yeah.”

  
  


She swallows and lets herself take in that new information before responding. “That would be nice. Being friends, I mean.”

  
  


Irina breaks out into a wide grin, beaming at her the way she only does when she spots Gritty. It’s still incredibly effective.

  
  


“Great! Hey, give me your phone real quick?” Irina asks.

  
  


Jessica quirks an eyebrow up and she clarifies, “To give you my number! Not to hack you or anything. This way we can text and meet up next time we’re both free.”

  
  


Irina makes grabby hands towards her and Jessica laughs, taking her phone out of her jeans pocket and unlocking it before she hands it over. Irina squints her eyes in focus and types laser-quick before brandishing it back to her proudly. The screen shows a text sent from her to (presumably) Irina’s number that reads:  _ “Hey Irina !! Wanna hang out sometime next week when I’m not being orange and furry ? ))”  _

  
  


She can’t help but smile at the ridiculousness of it. She accepts her phone back and watches as Irina digs her own phone out of a bag to make sure she got the text. Shortly after, Jessica’s own phone vibrates in her hand with a new message. It reads:

  
  


_ “Once my paper is done on Monday, I’m all yours )”  _

  
  


The phone buzzes a second time and Irina has immediately followed up her text with a huge iMessage sticker of Gritty doing a thumbs up. Jessica looks down, then back up at Irina. Irina looks extremely pleased with herself and is holding her lips tightly together like she’s trying to stop herself laughing. It’s so cute that Jessica can’t help but burst out laughing, a snort or two included. The snort is what sets Irina off and shortly after they’re both struggling to breathe while laughing in the middle of a corridor which anyone could walk in on.

  
  


“This is so stupid.”

  
  


“ _ So _ stupid.”

  
  


“Are you going to send those to me every time we text now?”

  
  


“Of course.”

  
  


Irina is still grinning but it’s shifted into something a little smaller, a little softer. Still Irina, but different. Another new smile for Jessica to catalogue.

  
  


“I needed to leave about five minutes ago to meet a classmate about a project we have, so I should probably head out,” Irina hedges. 

  
  


“Oh! Yeah, no, I have errands to run as well.”

  
  


“I’ll see you before the game tonight?”

  
  


“I’ll be there,” Jessica promises.

  
  


Irina gives her a small wave and passes Jessica in the direction of the parking lot. Jessica pretends to fiddle with her phone and turns her head at the last minute to see Irina turn the corner away from her. She sighs, audibly lovesick even to herself. Thank God no one’s around to see her like this.

  
  


With the prospects being even higher that someone from management or a player will run into her standing in the middle of the hallway like a dope, she hurries in the opposite direction to take the long route around the arena. 

  
  


Today has been good. Better than good, really, it’s been the highlight of her week so far and it’s barely noon. Maybe Mulligan was right and she should keep her hopes up after all. She should write him a thank you note or something, let him know it went well. It’s the least she can do for him.

  
  


Jessica checks her messages again so she can save Irina’s contact number and bites her lip when she reads the last few words that Irina sent her again. 

  
  


_ “I’m all yours.” _

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this frogy and that you have a wonderful holiday season! 
> 
> I was a pinch-hitter for you so I didn't have a lot of time to write the full love story you deserved. I wanted to stick to the same tone as the last two snippets of Jessica that we’ve gotten so far and while I was hoping to have the whole “finding out they’re both into women/asking each other out” reveal, as I was writing it felt like they had a lot more ground to cover before that stage. Hopefully we get to see more of their interactions in canon in 2020, because I’d love to write more of them in established relationship territory or teetering on the edge of getting together in the future.
> 
> Their dialogue was inspired by the first few conversations I had with my girlfriend when we were figuring out that we both wanted to date each other. Lots of confusion, needless apologies, and expressing emotions in convoluted ways until you're on the same level. Disaster!
> 
> As always, I’m @cxspian on Twitter and @pevensiedmund when I check my Tumblr once a month if you want to talk or leave a comment elsewhere.


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